The Queen of Panic!

2pm today -> phone rings:

"Hello, this is [Dorko] how can I help you?"

(I currently have a dream job, working from home, so I always ask if I can help whenever the phone rings and I don't recognize the caller ID)

Extremely familiar voice...
(sounds alot like me but a bit lower perhaps?):

"Hey [Dorko] what are you doing?"

Inner heart leaps for joy and curiosity over the call as I realize that I'm speaking with, "bomp-pa-da-bomp-bomp-BAH!" <-(a little fanfare, please!!)-> The Queen of Panic!

Rock isn't the only family member given over to nicknaming and nutshelling, in a word or two, people, places, things, events, situations.

I'm way into that sorta thing myself.

The Queen of Panic! is my sister people. And I dubbed her thus, shortly after my return to Nebraskaland from those Arizona Highways...

Growing up, I viewed her as a fairly normal being.
However, she married an awesome guy and bore 2 sons into the world. Sweet -A? For the most part we must all agree on that; however....
I'm convinced that the birthing process took its toll as a life changiing event and endowed my sister with SUPER powers of manic-panic.

Example: We're looking over salad fixings in the local I.G.A. grocery store. Her youngest child (who happens to have no fear and an aray of titles: Pony Boy, the Little Lord of Leaping, Bip, etc... I'll go with "Bip" here because it's easier to type.) takes a full gainer right outta the grocery cart onto his little head, making an impressive test-the-melon-for-ripeness THUMP! sound.
Not to be out done, my sister lets fly this banshee, other-worldly cry.
I mean that baby had not only volume to it, but the rather unsettleing effect of raising every nerve ending, hair and goosebump on ones body to full erection and blazen red alert!

(I was so shocked and dismayed at the time- that it took a bit of getting around for me to ask, "Man! What is up with that? and How does she do it???" [that other-worldly-totally-unnerving-cry-thingie] I'm thinking it's a gift, that Mothers get, right along with the children they have charge over...?)

Bip was ok. We were all shaken and stirred... which naturally led to several retellings of the scary event. It was during one of the post-occurance-hash sessions that I pointed out there was a 3rd interesting sound that day... the sound of every head & neck in the place, snapping towards [the] produce [department]. :)
I think that was the first time I test drove the moniker "Queen of Panic!" for her, and, well, ... folks it seems to be soooo her, that she, like me and "Dorko", has adopted it for her own now. We smile, wink and nod about it all the time.

She had latent ability in the early years... always skiddish about spiders and snakes (which is exactly why I KNEW that she'd have BOYZ! to raise) would bait a minnow on a hook but not a nightcrawler, washed her hands 3x more than me & Rock, she fears crickets & rightly so! If one enters a room that she's in - they will "go for her", damndest thing I've ever seen! [That mid-night safari for cricket I commented about on Pitch Black's blog - the serial killer post? - was actually launched in defense of our beloved Queen of Panic!.]

I remember an incident when I should have been a little less dismissive of her buding powers of panic!
We were really young, the days of 9 o'clock bed times. We'd gone to see the Movie "Who Slew Annie Rue?" starring Boris Karlof. It was summertime [I think] so we did the normal complaining to high Heaven about having to go to bed before it's even really dark outside. A loosing bid as always. Sharing a room meant we could goof off together and that was cool! At some point it did get dark and she decided she wanted her window open so she pops up outta her bed to take care of that and sits right back down...
Baby Queen of Panic! says: "There's somebody out there!"
Baby Dorko says: "Shut-up! There is not. You're just trying to scare me because we went to that scary movie. I'm not falling for it this time!"
[Blogger story note: Big sisters like to play tricks on little sisters - they will toy with you! Believe it.]
Baby Queen of Panic! "No! I'm serious!" Pops back up to take another look out of the window - pops back down and says, "I think it's a man and he's trying to look in the neighbor's windows!"
[Blogger story note: I'll spare you the ensuing, "No! You're faking it" vs. "No! I'm not! There's REALLY somebody out there!" all-out-war we had, ...which she eventually won]
So, Baby Dorko crawls over to Baby Queen of Panic's bed and pops up for a dubius looksie for herself.... 3 beats later, I'm hunkered down, & we're now sisters entrenched together saying, "OMGoodness! OMGoodness! There's somebody out there!"
We did the right thing.
We got Mommie and Daddy.

Good times.

Wow! Some trip down memory lane -A?

Anyways... I did answer her question...

"I'm still just trying to get things together around here... it's taking forever... place is a mess!"

[Takes me a small bit of forever to put my household together after a move! Gotta feel out the vibe of the new domicle. Gotta gage "flow". All that.]

Queen of Panic!: "You got enough space for overnight visitors?"

Dorko: (Excited!) "You comming down?"

(Queen of Panic! and her menfolk live in Minnesota, doncha know?)

Yes, yes, yes! Easter ... forgot all about the possibilities of Family get together! **der!** Apparently the Nieces are comming into Rock's and so she's bringing the Nephews.

Hoping they don't find out about how "we" entertained our badselves with our cousins, back in the day!

[Still blushing over my flashback comment to Mirands's blog: Deep in my Mind - the "Oi, my dilema...lol - post!]

Queen of Panic! Bip and her oldest, "Chicken Bub" will be in tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow - YES! and WHOO-HOO!

I'm telling you people I'm a blessed woman ...

WHO NEEDS TO GET TO WORK AND WORK REALLY HARD BECAUSE omgoodness, THEY'LL BE HERE TOMORROW!